Review: Perfect Mechanics: Instrument Makers at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century, by Richard Sorrenson

In 1761, Maryland merchant and amateur naturalist, Henry Callister wrote “A Dissertation on Swallows” in response to five questions posed by a Dr Chandler. His accounts of eight Maryland species include accurate descriptions of behaviour as well as external anatomy. His brief description of the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) may be one of the earliest accounts of this species. On the disappearance of swallows in winter, a topic of debate in the eighteenth century, Callister cited a number of reasons why he concluded that migration rather than hibernation was the explanation for this phenomenon. He noted differences in the habits of similar species in America and Europe and commented on the use of chimneys for nesting by chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica), and the fact that some birds incorporated human-made fibres in their nests. These observations led him to conclude that, similar to humans, non-human species are capable of adapting to their environment, an idea remarkably advanced for his time. There is no evidence that Callister's dissertation reached its intended destination which may have been Reverend Dr Samuel Chandler, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London at that time. But this document demonstrates that Henry Callister was an enthusiastic and perceptive observer of nature and that he had the ability to use his observations to develop general concepts and a deeper understanding of the world around him.

Download Full-text

Natural sex reversal in vertebrates

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1970.0046 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 259 (828) ◽

pp. 59-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Royal Society ◽

Experimental Approach ◽

Sea Bass ◽

Sex Reversal ◽

Human History ◽

Common Occurrence ◽

John Hunter ◽

Early Human ◽

Royal Society Of London

The phenomenon of sex reversal and hermaphroditism in vertebrates has been observed since early human history dating back to Aristotle, who also recorded that the , a sea-bass, reproduced without copulation. Despite their common occurrence and early discoveries, hermaphroditic animals, with or without sex reversal, aroused fear rather than interest before the eighteenth century; the laying ‘cock’ and the crowing ‘hen’ were usually put to death in accordance with the medieval laws (Evans 1906). The first experimental approach to intersexuality and sex reversal in vertebrates commenced with the work on birds and domestic mammals by John Hunter, who once gave an account to the Royal Society of London in 1780 on a most extraordinary pheasant, which ‘ after having produced several broods, moulted, and the succeeding feathers were those of a cock. This animal was never afterwards impregnated . . .’ (Marshall 1964).

Download Full-text

The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh 1748–1768

The British Journal for the History of Science ◽

10.1017/s0007087400018501 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 133-176 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Roger L. Emerson

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Royal Society ◽

Clear Sign ◽

Royal Society Of London

The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh which had flourished for a few years after 1738 was as good as dead in 1748. Lord Morton, its President, now lived most of the time in London whence he wrote to Sir John Clerk in 1747 that he regarded the Society as ‘annihilated’, apparently thinking that the death of Colin MacLaurin in 1746 and the temporary retirement to the countryside of its other Secretary, Andrew Plummer, had put an end to it. Sir John had hoped to revive it through association with the Royal Society of London, but Morton did not encourage him in this scheme, about which he had ‘great doubts’. The Society needed a mathematician and an experimenter who could carry on the consulting work which MacLaurin had done, but Morton glumly wondered if ‘the new professor of Mathematics [Matthew Stewart] will be as zealous as MacLaurin had been.’ The Society's other officers, Dr John Clerk and Alexander Lind, are not known to have tried to revive the Society. Perhaps they were discouraged by the fact that ten (22%) of the members of the Society were dead, and that six more (1396) had left the kingdom. At least three others (7%) were likely to have been habitually absent from meetings because they lived some distance from Edinburgh. Of the remaining forty-five known members in 1748, nine (20%) were over sixty-one years of age with four being between seventy-one and seventy-six. In 1737 the average age of thirty-eight of the founders had been 46.0, but by 1748 it had risen to 53.9 for the thirty-three men for whom it can be calculated. Disruption, death, and age had diminished enthusiasm for the Society and jeopardized its survival. Only two meetings are known to have been held in 1746. Sir John's letter to Morton about affiliation with the Royal Society is the only clear sign of life in 1747. We may well ask why this floundering body survived, to whom and to what it owed its revival? The answers to these questions tell us something about the intellectual needs and interests of the Edinburgh intelligentsia of the mid-eighteenth century.

Download Full-text